BANGALORE, Jan 15: Setting the tone for an aggressive Congress campaign, Sonia Gandhi today challenged the Union Government to make the Bofors papers public, to reveal the names of all those involved and ``take whatever action is required against them''.Addressing a public meeting at the National College Grounds in south Bangalore, she claimed that if the Government did so, she would be ``the happiest person,'' because her husband would be vindicated ``once and for all.''
Alleging that Rajiv had been the ``victim of malicious and slanderous accusations,'' she said: ``Six Governments have come and gone, five of them from the Opposition parties, yet the complete truth has still to be revealed. I have often wondered why.''
The loudest cheers, from the estimated 80,000-strong crowd, were reserved for this brief but politically crucial portion of Sonia's address. Clearly, Sonia had prepared for the occasion and reserved her Bofors bombshell for her first mass meeting of her life -- one in which she was not
accompanied by daughter Priyanka.
At one level, her statement echoes the typical Congress reaction to the Bofors controversy. But at another, by raising the issue, she has opened the door for her opponents, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to take her on.
The impact of Sonia's speech was heavily diluted by a ponderous and unsure SM Krishna, former State Deputy Chief Minister, who made a hash of translating it into Kannada. He was periodically booed and whistled at, finally forcing All India Congress Committee general secretary Oscar Fernandes to take the Kannada text away from him. But having delivered the punch, Sonia mostly reiterated what she said in Sriperumbudur on January 11.
Her speech was once again a mix of the personal and the political, with the now trademark use of the native language to set her address off. She offered Makar Sankranti greetings in Kannada and quickly positioned the State as key to Congress history.
``Karnataka has always been special to my family. The historic
split in the Congress in 1969, which set the new agenda for the party under Indira Gandhi and raised the platform for the poor and the downtrodden, took place here in Bangalore. How can I forget that when the party lost ground in most States, and when Indira Gandhi lost her election in 1977, it was Karnataka which invited her and sent her back to Parliament from Chikmagalur,'' she said.
She also referred to Rajiv's initiation into politics with a Youth Congress convention in Bangalore. As an added sop, she praised the city as a thriving metropolis which was, and is, home to several ``great'' Congress leaders, artists, scientists and other creative people. A mention was made of the city's importance in scientific and industrial activity.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
